Agreement in personality trait ratings: At first and over time

Despite conventional wisdom to the contrary, researchers have failed to con sistently find a relationship between acquaintance and interjudge agreement in perceptions of personality traits. One hundred and thirty-one participa nts divided into 29 small groups rated themselves and other group members o n seven personality traits three times over the course of six months with i nitial measures completed within the fast week of acquaintance. Improving u pon previous designs to include the initial acquaintance period revealed th at agreement in judgments of group members' emotional stability and conscie ntiousness increased within the fast eight weeks of acquaintance. After eig ht weeks, agreement did not increase for any of the traits. Results are int erpreted to bridge the gap between empirical findings and lay knowledge of the acquaintance process.